Sonoma Results
By Andrew Cutler
August 24 2009
After a rough start - with seven cars getting tangled up in a first lap incident, the Honda Indy Grand Prix of Sonoma settled down into a contest between Dario Franchitti and Ryan Briscoe, with the Scot leading every lap and taking the win: The consolation prize for the Aussie is that he once again finds himelf on top the championship points chase.
Two other drivers made good on the notion that road/street races tend to be the "equalizer", giving the smaller teams a better chance at runnig with the big boys than ovals do. Dreyer & Rheinbold Racing's Mike Conway posted an impressive third, while KVRT's Mario Moraes, who missed the Mid-Ohio race to attend his father's funeral, came home in fourth.
During the Saturday morning pre-qualifications practice session three drivers were involved in a scarry incident. Nelson Philippe spun his car and stalled out on the track just after cresting a hill, in a "blind spot" where others could not see him until they were right upon him. While the flagmen tried their best to warn oncomming traffic, E.J. Viso and Will Power were unable to miss Philippe. Viso clipped the nose of Nelson's car and limped on back to the pits. Power broadsided it squarely in the side. Both men were taken to the local hospital with concussions and other injuries which forcd them to miss the race.
J.R. Hildebrand took another victory in the Firestone Indy Lights race, moving ever closer to claiming the series title. There are two races left in the FIL season; Chicagland and Homestead-Miami.
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I don't try to miss races but unfortunately I missed Sonoma. They (INDY CAR) don't seem follow the Sunday race format as F1 does, so at times they catch me sleeping.
Are you posting a competition for this weekend @ Chicago ?
If so It's Brisco, Frandchiti, and Dixon in that order.
If you wish to use the fourth question of where will Danica finish ? I'll say top six.
sessions
After this weekend, I SHOULD be fully moved up to Ft. Wayne and have internet service re-established (I've been using the city library computers for some time now), which means that I'll be ready to resume up the Pick 3 competition agin in time for Motegi.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2009:09:02:15:42:57 by IndyAndy.